a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Not Negative Off-Day Odds and Ends

One. Matt Harpring asks Raja which is the worst: guarding a guy with bad breath, BO, or a really heavy sweater? [I assume by “sweater” he meant a la Patrick Ewing/Al Jefferson rather than the knitted variety.]

Raja: I’m OK with [sweat], but breath for me is a kicker. It’s a kicker. If he’s a heavy breather, you know some guys…BO’s tough too because that actually rubs on you, and you wind up…[Matty: It gets on the uniform and then you want to go to wipe yourself and then you smell.] Yeah, so that might be a toss-up for me with the breath and the BO. (FB video)

Maybe that’s the answer to the Jazz’s woes then. Forget about scrimmaging and practice and plays. Just stop showering and eat lots of garlic before tip-off. Easy as pie.

Raja: I like some of the stuff that Andrei and Memo wear. Andrei wears some really sharp stuff and Memo’s suits are really tight.* Deron and CJ got a nice little flair to them. Earl wears some nice stuff. Francisco… [upon further consideration] I gotta get rid of Francisco. He’s got these corduroys. I tease him all the time. We’re trying to get rid of the corduroys. (aforementioned FB video)

*I’m really taking liberties again with Raja’s words but by “tight” I assume he means “nice-looking” rather than “I could see double-O *and* seven in those things.”

Five. Just for the record. Deron, after game at New Jersey: “We like each other. …There’s nothing going on in the locker room or anything.” (desnews)

While I’m here, one thing. The “AK missed practice during the Playoffs three years ago” thing got dragged up again recently on Twitter by a former Jazz beat writer, who said that he was astounded by AK’s lack of common sense. I wrote the following (with bad spelling and grammar due to character/space limit) on Twitter, but want to reiterate it here.

First of all, the Jazz excused AK from practice.

Second, those that do a lot of international traveling know that the entire reason for existence of consulates and representative offices is to be as difficult (asshole-y) as possible to those that are trying to get travel visas. Appointment times are NOT in your hands, especially if you aren’t given a choice for time and date of appointment. Seeing as how such appointments are often made weeks or even months in advance, it’s not a matter of common sense. If you miss your appointment, you might not get another for a month. Fes (last season) and Elson (this season) have both missed games due to visa issues, and no one blinked an eye. Just sayin’.